Netflix is going great guns with investors and analysts

On Tuesday, it was almost like an auctioneer was running the show with regards to Wall Street analysts and their opinions about how high Netflix’s share price could go.

In early trading, Netflix’s shares surged almost 12 percent to reach an all-time high of $180.85. That’s what happens when you deliver a quarterly report that blows past expectations, like Netflix did late Monday. The highlight of the company’s results was Netflix adding 5.2 million new subscribers worldwide, which was 2 million more than what the company had forecast.

That helped Netflix officially cross the 100 million subscriber mark. The company ended its second quarter with almost 104 million total subscribers.

Netflix’s results led many analysts to lift their expectations for the company, and give investors more reasons to stick with the internet TV giant.

“The international growth opportunity remains the most impactful component of our long-term bull thesis on Netflix,” said Michael Morris, of Guggenheim. “This includes content not just produced in a region’s native tongue, but content tailored to local taste as well.”

Morris, who holds a buy rating on Netflix’s stock, raised his target price on the company’s shares to $190 from $180. And he wasn’t alone with his assessment of how high the stock can get.

Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente said that even with Netflix’s strong second-quarter subscriber gains, “investors are likely to come away even more impressed with the growth called for in (its) third-quarter guidance.” Netflix said it expects to add 4.4 million new subscribers for the quarter that ends in September.

And DiClemente also raised his price target on Netflix, going to $195 a share from $175.

Michael Olson, of Piper Jaffray, said that even with “multiple large players” on the internet TV scene, Netflix has reached ‘”escape velocity,” and should be the company that leads the way as consumers shift the spending on traditional TV services to internet-based content delivery.

And with that in mind, Olson raised his target price on Netflix’s shares to $198 from $190.

So, despite what the name of its most prestigious show implies, there’s a growing sense that Netflix is anything but a “House of Cards” right now.

Photo: An image of Netflix shows such as “House of Cards” is seen in this picture of the programs on an LG Electronics television. (PRNewsFoto/LG Electronics USA)